EN 1473 is the European standard for the design of onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) installations — liquefaction, storage, regasification, transfer and handling. It sets a risk-based approach to safety distances, cryogenic containment and the LNG-specific hazards of rollover, rapid phase transition and BLEVE. ISO 16903 is its international companion on LNG material characteristics.
EN 1473 Guidelines for the design, construction and operation of onshore LNG installations — liquefaction, storage, vaporisation, transfer and handling. Applies to plants with LNG storage above 200 t.
ISO 16903 Characteristics of LNG influencing the design and selection of materials. The international reference on how a cryogenic, flammable liquid behaves — the input to EN 1473's material choices.
ISO 16924 / ISO 20519 ISO 16924 covers LNG fuelling stations; ISO 20519 covers bunkering of gas-fuelled ships. The small-scale and marine-supply counterparts to EN 1473's large onshore terminals.
(RPT) To ship and store natural gas economically, it is cooled until it becomes liquid — shrinking its volume roughly 600-fold. That convenience comes with a demanding hazard set: a flammable, cryogenic liquid at about -162 °C, held in large tanks near people and property. EN 1473 is the European standard that governs how an onshore LNG installation is designed so those hazards stay contained.
The standard gives guidelines for the design, construction and operation of onshore LNG installations — liquefaction, storage, regasification, transfer and handling — and applies to plants storing more than 200 t of LNG. Its method is risk-based: rather than fixed setbacks alone, it uses quantitative assessment of thermal radiation, gas dispersion and overpressure to set the separation distances to people, buildings and the boundary. Storage tanks are built as single, double or full containment, backed by a bund that can catch a release — the containment concept being the core defence against a tank failure.
LNG fails in ways ordinary fuels do not. At -162 °C it embrittles carbon steel, so cryogenic-grade materials are mandatory — the area where ISO 16903 provides the international reference on LNG characteristics and material selection. Rollover can release a large vapour volume when stratified layers suddenly mix. Rapid phase transition turns spilled LNG to vapour almost instantly on contact with water, a physical explosion without combustion. And BLEVE and large pool fires are the escalation scenarios that spacing, detection and emergency isolation are designed to prevent.
EN 1473 sets the installation design; other standards protect it in operation. Safety instrumented systems that trip the plant follow IEC 61511, built on the functional-safety framework of IEC 61508. Because flammable gas defines the site, the explosive-atmosphere regime applies throughout: the ATEX 2014/34/EU directive for equipment and IEC 60079 for its design and installation in hazardous areas.